[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 156 (Saturday, November 8, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S12078]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               PUBLIC UTILITY HOLDING COMPANY ACT REPEAL

  Mr. LOTT. Mr. President, I would like to state my strong support for 
S. 621, and express my disappointment that a few Senators have 
prevented this body from considering the bill this year. A bipartisan 
majority of Senators supports PUHCA repeal, and I will bring it to the 
floor for consideration and passage early next year.
  Both Chairmen D'Amato and Murkowski, along with Senators Dodd and 
Sarbanes, deserve great credit for helping to move this legislation 
forward. It is unfortunate that their efforts on both sides of the 
aisle were unsuccessful this session. They know--as do the other 20 
cosponsors of S. 621--that repealing PUHCA would remove an outdated 
regulatory burden that restricts the operations of a handful of 
electric and gas utilities.
  Mr. President, PUHCA was enacted in 1935 to eliminate holding company 
abuses of that time, and it was quite successful. In the last six 
decades, however, Congress and the States have enacted a whole spectrum 
of securities, antitrust and utility regulatory statutes that make it 
impossible for those abuses to occur again. Even the Securities and 
Exchange Commission, the agency tasked to enforce PUHCA, has said that 
PUHCA is no longer needed and should be repealed.
  Now, long past its usefulness, PUHCA stands in the way of 
competition. While some argue that PUHCA should only be repealed as a 
part of comprehensive restructuring legislation, I believe that 
incremental steps toward competition are responsible and realistic 
accomplishments for the 105th Congress. Repealing PUHCA should be the 
first incremental step.
  Mr. President, crafting comprehensive restructuring legislation 
requires Congress to consider a whole host of difficult issues--
stranded cost recovery, State versus Federal authority, renewable 
resources, public power subsidies, environmental impacts. The list goes 
on and on. There is no consensus among Senators on these issues, but 
there is an overwhelming amount of support for PUHCA repeal.
  Instead of searching for the perfect total package, let's focus on 
the incremental steps toward competition that we can agree on. PUHCA is 
the biggest single Federal obstacle to the advancement of retail 
competition, and it should be repealed now. Several States have already 
adopted or are in the process of adopting retail competition plans 
without comprehensive utility restructuring legislation. We can't allow 
the Federal Government to block progress in the States. Without PUHCA 
repeal, retail competition in the States simply cannot flourish.
  Mr. President, now is the time for PUHCA repeal. Although the few 
opponents of S. 621 have prevented the Senate from considering the bill 
this year, I will bring it to the floor early next year. I hope that my 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle will join me in repealing this 
outdated and burdensome Federal obstacle to competition in the utility 
industry.

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